Radosti Roads presents: Tor on Tour 2011-2012!

Fairbanks can reach a low of - 60 degrees F during those bitter cold winter months. This year we were told that it lasted for quite a while. The cars wouldn't start, even those with plug in oil pan heaters and block warmers. People could hardly leave their homes. "If I even stepped outside, my bones would chill and my teeth would hurt!" I was told by a native woman who's lived there all her life.

This year for us, however, we had the privilege of missing some of this treacherous weather because we were touring the lower 48 states preaching, and seeing God do just some amazing things! Our time traveling from East to West coast USA was well spent and there were more than enough testimonies to show for it! In Tennessee, we saw great joy and freedom break out as many were delivered from various bondages and one man's uneven leg grew out! In Ohio, a gang member radically came to Christ and then brought friends and family to come to know Jesus! In California we received multiple reports of healing and deliverance - and these are only a few of the many! We are very thankful for all we saw God do on this tour, and instead of showing more preaching and ministry clips, we wanted to switch things up a little bit :) Here is a short video we put together of the trip from the youngest missionary on our team (outside the womb), Titus Obadiah!

Off the beaten path - Chalkyitsik, Alaska

"This is the kind of stuff you hear about from Mexico", said one of the elderly Pastors from the village as he pulled his gun from his holster. He told us stories of elders being beaten in the village and armed robberies held by teenagers. "Now everyone carries a gun." Many of the people live in fear in the villages. The abuse and alcoholism rate is horrendous. Many live in fear of or heartbreak from losing a loved one. Since we've been here we've heard tons of stories of deaths due to alcohol abuse. One man lost his son, daughter and wife to it all in the past year. The stories broke our hearts, and as we prayed we saw that many began to find hope in Jesus! By the end of the meeting last night at the cultural center, one woman had severe hip problems as she had one leg shorter than the other. We prayed for her, and sure enough it grew out to match the other leg! Many other miracles took place as the service progressed. Tor was getting super tired as it was almost midnight and the service was not yet over. So we took him back to the missionary cabin and put him to bed for the night.

  This morning was insanely busy. Our small Cessna caravan plane was set to pick us up from Fort Yukon directly after the morning service was done for Chalkyitsik. As soon as I woke up, I jumped in the shower, then grabbed the baby and got him ready as Rob showered. I ran over to the only church in the village to help with the Sunday morning service where Rob was ministering. After worship, I watched the children in the church along with Tor and took pictures. Immediately after it was over, I ran back to pack everything we had and feed the baby a little food. Before we knew it, the plane was taking off for Chalkyitsik and we arrived around 3:30 PM. We were shown to the place we would stay for 2 days. It had no running water, but there was an outhouse we could use. The room had a twin size mattress on the ground and enough room for Tor's portable crib. This was a real sweet small village. We were praying for a move of God amongst the brokenhearted! The cabin we had the privilege of staying in was built and lived in by an honorable man named Chief David Salmon. David was a Gwich'in Elder and Priest of the only Episcopalian church in the village of Chalkyitsik that he built with his own hands. He was a very honorable, respected and passionate man of God and his memory is greatly cherished - especially in the heart of his Granddaughter Patti who we had the privilege of spending a lot of time with during our stay. She and our other host Chitsu Mary (Grandma Mary in their Native tongue) made wonderful moose and fish dishes for us during our stay.

(For more info on David Salmon click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Salmon_%28tribal_chief%29)

  Together Chitsu Mary and Patti treated us like royalty and Titus adored the time he got to spend with them too! Our first meeting was small in the village, however, it is a tiny village. Some of the Elders came to the meeting along with our hosts. We were honored to be able to minister to them. The worship leader who came with us from Fort Yukon absolutely adored worshiping the Lord and so passionately praised - it was beautiful! That night we met a couple who taught at the only school in the village, and they asked us to come and give our testimony at the school the next day! How could we pass up an offer like that?

  The next day we got ourselves ready and walked over to the school that all the village children attended. The teachers gathered them into the gymnasium, and they were excited that we had come to visit. We got to minister to the kids and Rob boldly shared his story with them. After he was done, we invited them to the meeting that night at the church if they wanted to know more about Jesus. As Rob was walking in the village that day after the school outreach, he was threatened by a young Native man who let him know that we were not welcome there. Through the opposition, we knew we were where we were supposed to be. We had heard stories of Missionaries attempting to come to this village, and in the middle of the night the cabin that they were staying in was hacked to pieces and they were told to never come back or that they would be killed. Knowing that Christ is the head of all principalities and powers, we counted it an honor to be declaring the Gospel in Chalkyitsik! In fact, that night the little church was packed - and many of those in attendance were the children! We were happy to see such little hearts interested in the things of God! The teachers then invited us to come over to take showers after we preached because they were the only ones in the village with running water in their home. We did take advantage of that opportunity! It felt great to get showers after a few days with none. At the last meeting we brought with us a beautiful Eagle Blanket and a pair of earrings to present to our hosts as a thank you for allowing us into the village and blessing us so. This is customary to do as a token of gratitude when you are going into villages - I learned that in South American villages as it is nearly the same. They presented me with a beautiful Native necklace and earrings. I felt so incredibly blessed to have experienced life with them for the short time. As we were boarding our flight back to Fort Yukon to go back to Fairbanks where we could drive 7 hours home, we were blessed as the Elders of the village came out to see us off at the plane. We thanked them again, and we were off. It was amazing simply staring at the frozen tundra with miles and miles of wilderness beneath our feet.


 We know that on our missions journeys here in Alaska, the road has been paved before us. As we come through, there have been those who have went before us to serve the people so that one day, they might accept the Gospel, as well as white people like us. There's people that have lived in and loved the lands of the far north, and the tribes here whether they were of the tribes themselves or of other nationalities serving as Missionaries. They have lived rough lives and have faced danger for the sake of the Gospel. God has used them and their message not only to change the lives of the ones they are reaching, but us who can now freely come and preach in love to the people as well and see people come to freedom in Christ. Sometimes our language and our messages are worded differently, but we are thankful to be part of the family and team here in Alaska that is all working for the same cause - to bring people to the knowledge of who He is, and of His love for them.

 A special thank you for making this possible to: Pastor Ed Kalnins and family, Pastor Joshua Reese and family, Wasilla Assembly of God, Pastor Marvin Carroll and Golden Heart Church, Pastor Jeremiah Niemuth and family, Johnathon Marks and Fort Yukon Assembly of God, Sam Pitka, Mike Curtis, Patti and the Salmon Family, Chitsu Mary, and any we may have missed. You made this possible. Thank you!

Our first Arctic adventure: Mission Fort Yukon

So many doors have opened recently that keeping up with this blog has been a blur!
It was only two weeks ago that we were serving the villages of Tanacross and Tetlin in Eastern Alaska, and now we are in the village of Fort Yukon. We are about 8 miles above the arctic circle, and it is already snowing here on October 8th! The time we had before coming to this village we spent serving in the town of Soldotna on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. We had a wonderful time meeting family in Christ there and ministering to them. After returning home from Soldotna we had only 2 days to pack, drive to Fairbanks again and board our plane to Fort Yukon. Fort Yukon is a fly in only village except in the Summer when you can take a boat down the river to reach the village. Fort Yukon is an Indian village with anywhere from 500 to 700 people depending on the season. We boarded a little Cessna Grand Caravan plane for an hour flight from Fairbanks, and arrived on a gravel runway which welcomed us to the village. Surprisingly, even though it was a gravel runway the landing was smoother than most larger commercial flights we had taken! We piled into a pickup truck and headed to our abode for the next coupleof days. We would be staying at a church parsonage in the area. By that time, Tor was in desperate need of a nap. My protocol usually is to first set up his portable crib and lay him down for a nap. I like to keep a stuffed animal of his as a constant and I bring his same blankets from home so he feels comfy in his crib. He quickly fell asleep and we fellowshipped, prayed and ate with the team. It didn't take us long to figure out that there was a wireless internet signal in the parsonage! Okay, so there is no way to make a phone call or text message BUT we can update our Facebooks lol! What an age we live in when we can be in such a village but still access the internet! After the baby woke up, I fed him and we bundled up and headed out to the village hall for the meeting. The musicians on our team sang beautiful hymns and praised. After he was introduced to the village, Rob boldly preached his testimony and we prayed for the people. One young girl had blindness in one eye and she said it was getting better after prayer. A man entered the church drunk and mourning the loss of his wife, son and daughter. By the end of the night he was singing hymns on the altar with the worship team praising God! There was a potlatch (native potluck) where the ladies from the village brought different types of food for the meeting. For the first time we tried moose stew. It tasted good however my stomach took it a little harder. There was no bathroom in the village hall and I forgot to bring toilet paper with me so I could go outside. Instead, I just had to hold it and wait to get back to the church house we were staying in so I was thankful to get back. As we were settling down for bed, one of the leaders warned us of the mouse traps he had set so that Tor didn't get a finger snapped by accident. We were thankful that he picked them up while we were here, but as we headed to bed we had a very special surprise in store for us. We lifted up the sheets to find piles of walnuts and mouse poop. The people whose bed it was haven't lived there in months and so there were some other unwelcome occupants taking their place - mice. We cleaned it up the best we could, put a blanket down on top of the sheets and slept on top of the blanket. We thanked God for a place to stay and slept soundly. Things on the mission field are not always what we would prefer or ask for but we are out to serve, and it goes way beyond out comfort... its investing into the eternal! We are excited as we headed with our team to the store to buy the chief of the village a gift. We got this beautiful eagle blanket for him and if he shows to the meeting tonight we will present the gift to him publicly and pray for him! We are very excited! So now we are eating lunch. Tor is

Look at those prices! :O

napping again and we are preparing for the meeting tonight! The village here is ripe and we are praying for many souls to come into the kingdom! Oh and I almost forgot. We were going to be headed back to Fairbanks tomorrow and then back home to Wasilla, but another village called Chalkyitsik about 50 miles Northeast of here invited us to come preach the Gospel! So it looks like tomorrow we will be taking a flight to Chalkyitsik instead of Fairbanks for a few days - I will keep you updated!!!

Loving on Fairbanks!

I woke up as late as I could yesterday morning which was about 8:00 AM sharp. I had to be awake early enough once again to get myself ready, get the baby ready, make breakfast and pack lunch and snacks for the day for the family, yet also have everything packed up and out of our little cabin before we departed. We left a little after 9:30 AM and headed to Fairbanks. We could not figure out how long it would take us to get there from Tok because we were getting different answers from our GPS, our phones, the internet (if we could get service) and everyone we asked. Some said 5-6 hours and some said 2-3. It wound up taking us about 3 hours total. Since our meeting at the Community Tribal Hall was at 3 pm, we arrived about an hour early. My brother who is serving in the Army walked an hour to be there with us and was already there. The worship team started at 2 and played old time hymns for about 2 and a half hours and they prayed and even even sang a song in their native language. One of the worship leaders would speak between songs about the hope God has given him and even bought him through such a difficult time as when his son committed suicide. The crowd grew and grew and even some homeless where coming off the streets! Rob was introduced by the pastor and gave our testimonies with great authority. The people started shouting for joy as Rob described how God had delivered him. By the end of the meeting Rob stayed and ministered for hours with accurate words of knowledge to the crowd. Its was so powerful!

After a while they brought out food for the church and the homeless and we already had to head to the next meeting. Titus napped in the car as Rob went to support and serve a friend at another ministry event as she preached and they imparted at the end of the service. It was another amazing day of miracles!

By the end of the day I was running out of supplies like diapers, wipes and food for the next day. I loved being able to drive down the street to a Walmart to grab the things we needed! Our family is very weary and tired and thankful to take showers and rest. We cannot wait to see what God has in store for tomorrow!
- Millie

You are now entering tribal lands... enter at your own risk.

Many Americans don't know that our country still has Native tribes living within it's borders. Most can't even imagine life outside of our own Americanized civilization. We are not only blessed to know, but to also have the opportunity to experience these beautiful people and their great culture first hand! The villages here in Alaska are not like the villages we've visited in other countries. The villagers speak their own Native languages as well as English, have electricity and even resources to live somewhat comfortably. Some of the villages even have access to financially well standing careers that supply them with up to date equipment. However many, if not all villages have something to live with that we don't necessarily have to. Their forefathers and great forefathers lived here long before our type of civilization. They have to deal with a constant struggle between their native culture, beliefs, religions and the Americanized life that we bring. Today we have found many cases of people who needed no convincing about the reality of the Supernatural. They just wanted to know why they see spirits and demons lurking in their house. Some wanted to know how to get their house clean and free from them. Some of the people wanted to know the truth about Jesus aside from cultural religion - and they all wanted to be free.

I woke up bright and early to start getting myself and the family ready. I had a lot to think about when packing today. It was my first time bringing our baby to a village where a "Walmart" wouldn't be found for hours. I needed to not forget anything because if I did there was a good chance I either wouldn't be able to find it anywhere else or if I did, the price of whatever I would need would be inflated ridiculously. After cooking breakfast and packing everything I could possibly remember to pack, we jumped in the van and headed for the dirt roads.

As a Missionary I can say that it is a great advantage to be able to have your own vehicle on the field! We waited in our van to meet our contact where the paved roads meet the dirt road - and when she arrived we followed her into the first village. There we prepared to do a children's outreach. Our contact, Crystal, had been working with this village already for some time, and today we were going to minister to the village and even the visiting children with a program including music, a lesson, games and speaking and ministry time. At the end, Rob was to share about Jesus and pray and impart the Holy Spirit to them. When asked the question "What is sin?" the children shouted back some shocking answers. One would say "Cursing", and another would shout, "Stealing". What took me by surprise was when the children would yell "Hitting girls!", and another would yell "Smoking Dope!" We were shocked to hear such young children (ages 4-10) even aware of such things but we had been previously warned that some of the biggest issues in the villages are things like abuse, suicide, drugs and alcoholism. In fact, suicide is an epidemic in Native Alaskan villages - and that is only the tip of the iceberg. Needless to say, the children joyfully interacted and participated in the program. It was amazing to see such young hearts touched by Jesus. Some of them had already given their lives to Jesus and some who previously hadn't wanted to receive Jesus for the first time! God is so good to us, giving us the honor of seeing such miracles! One young man could not see very far and needed to stand very close to a sign just to read it. After prayer, he testified to us that he began to see clear from farther and farther away! The other children witnessed this miracle and all wanted prayer and began to display an interest in the supernatural. Many of them had a broad understanding if witchcraft and the occult because it was in their family history, and at some point along the line, they had been introduced to it. We prayed and broke the ties of witchcraft, and the joy of the Holy Spirit fell on those young guys!

After leaving the church, Titus fell asleep in the car so I needed to stay with him. (Some villages have pretty alarming crime rates.) Meanwhile Rob, Crystal and the rest of the team went door to door in the village offering to pray for people and getting words of knowledge for them. This was incredibly fruitful as they got to pray for many sick, and one lady even invited them in saying "There is evil spirits in my house and I want it clean!". God did amazing things there and many were touched. Next it was time to go to the next village named "Tetlin".

The next village was over an hour off the highway down a narrow, winding dirt road. Upon approaching the entrance, there was a sign that read "You are now entering Tetlin tribal land - enter at your own risk" I wasn't quite sure what exactly the sign was meant, but we thanked the Lord for protection and trekked on. We arrived at the Village Tribal Center where there was a planned Tribal dinner and meeting where Rob would preach for the village. Unfortunately, without notice they cancelled on us because there was a death in the village and when there is a death most of the village takes the time out to mourn and feast together. Rob, Crystal and the team went out praying and ministering to people anyway. One young man went for a walk with Rob, a walk that would change his life. There he asked to receive Jesus into his life. They also prayed for a crippled man and some others on their way. As they were ministering someone came to ask about the meeting. Apparently, they didn't know it was cancelled and Rob, Crystal and the team decided to hold the meeting anyway for the few people that still wanted to come!

No, it wasn't a revival gathering of a bazillion people and Hillsong wasn't leading worship. It was just us, and a few villagers who were hungry for the presence of God. Rob preached his heart out like he was leading a crusade and prayed for them. We know that when God sends us, He expects us to do as He would do. He would leave the 99 for the 1. He would leave behind a whole schedule of activities to come to a village and minister to just one person! We consider it a great honor to see all that  God has done changing lives today!

We didn't get back to our cabin until about midnight. After cooking dinner and laying the baby in his portable crib, it is 1:30AM and I am ready to hit the pillow. I'm so thankful for this opportunity and I realize that tomorrow is only getting closer as I continue to write. So goodnight all. Pray for our journeys tomorrow!

Traveling to Tok

For a day of travel it was not quite as hectic as it usually is getting everything we need packed and out the door in time to travel comfortably without arriving at our destination at an ungodly hour. Our target estimated time of departure was 10:00 AM. We only fell behind one hour leaving at 11:00 AM which still gave us plenty of travel time. The trip started out slow as Rob wanted to catch a picture at every stop there was on the side of the road to catch a view of the breathtaking landscape. We did get some good pictures out of it. Alaska is just an amazing part of our country. I hope as friends and family visit us in the future that we can share in some of it's beauty with them too! We eventually made our way to a huge glacier. It was enormous and beautiful! There was a sign that said we could drive to it and even walk on it! We were incredibly excited as we took the turn down the rocky mountainside road until we approached a gate. Of course they'll charge to go see it. :( 20 dollars a person. We thought we'll just have to do it next year. So we jumped back in the car and kept heading Northeast to Tok. As we got closer we saw less and less civilization. We approached Tok at about 6:30 PM. (Yes, that is actually good timing for us!) We passed the only gas station we saw which did not look very busy at the time. I snagged a picture for y'all though! We made our way to our cabin in the forest. Its a cute little cabin. I got things settled and unpacked at the cabin as Rob went out to buy some meat for us to cook for dinner. He had quite the experience at the little market. All the rotten fruit was on clearance and a bottle of A1 Steak Sauce was $7.00! Sitting just outside the market were a group of young native men wearing bandanas and staring at everyone who passed by. Rob picked up dinner and made his way back.

Though there may be principalities here we know God keeps us safe and that we have the authority over them! We spent the rest of tonight praying and preparing for tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who is praying - we feel it and keep it up!

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Blind Faith - preparing for village ministry and service.

Us at the Alaska State Fair

We have just had an amazing time here in Alaska. When God calls you somewhere, He certainly knows what He is doing! So far, we've had many opportunities to minister since we've been led to stay. As soon as we arrived in Alaska, one of the main things we heard about was the Alaska State Fair. It happens once a year to close out the summer, and is the only fair with entertainment of it's kind. When we accepted our heavenly assignment for Alaska and did not take our flight back to Charlotte, we decided to head to the fair to see what all the hype was about. When we arrived, one of the first things we came in contact with was a “Spiritual Reading” tent. Some of the Master's Commission team we were with went up to them. In my head I thought, “Oh that's so good! They are witnessing to the psychics!” As I come closer I saw scriptures on the walls and I could hear prayers throughout the tent. This certainly was no psychic tent! This was a prophetic evangelism tent! I was so excited to see this as I have never seen one in action before. I was honored when they offered for me to join them, but I nicely declined as my husband and son were with me. We spent some time there and went on our way to check out the rest of the fair, however as we walked away I could not get the opportunity out of my head. “How can I just walk away?” I thought to myself. This was such a chance for God to use me to impact people. I had to go back. I handed Tor off to my husband Rob and got back to the tent as fast as I could. They were delighted to see me return and I headed right to the back for training, prayer and 

Spiritual Reading Tent

impartation. Soon enough I was teamed up with a partner, and people were filing in to get a “Spiritual Reading”. Although I cannot give out too much information because I feel it is confidential I can say that I really saw such a hunger stirred up from people to know God and that it was so incredibly fruitful with right on prophetic words from God! One person even asked “So, God is okay with this?” People who have had such a view of a distant God were opened up to the reality that there is an intimate real God waiting to have a relationship with them! It was truly amazing! I had an amazing time seeing God change lives right in front of me.

Since then we have been building relationships with the people here in Alaska. Rob has ministered a few times with the youth group at our church, Master's Commission and in the main services of the church itself. We've seen God do amazing things here and we are just so thankful to everyone who has welcomed us and helped us begin to get established here. God provided a place for us to live, a van, clothes, jackets and so much. We are speechless with how quickly God confirmed that we are, without a doubt, supposed to be here.

So in the midst of the opportunities to minister and the friendships and trust we are building here in Alaska, an exciting door has opened before us to minister to some native villages in the interior of the state. First thing this morning we are packing to leave and we are thrilled about it!

We've heard that there are some intense issues in these villages we are going to, however we know that we in and of ourselves cannot do anything alone about these issues but as we've so clearly so many times seen God do the miraculous in villages we've visited in other nations - we know we can rely on God to do the same here for the villages in our own nation! I count it a privilege to be able to serve all the different types of people found in our own nation. It is an honor.

I can say that as we go along to the villages I will try to keep the blog somewhat updated to keep you informed of all that is happening. I know I will have amazing testimonies to share!

Please pray for these things for us as we go: the road conditions are safe (rumors are that there is snow already along the passes we will have to drive through), that we will have a peaceful trip free of stress or distractions, that we will have favor in the villages and they will open their hearts to what God wants to do in their life! Pray for our safety and Holy Spirit opportunities to serve these people.

Thank you for your prayers. We love and appreciate you dearly!

Millie